Chapter 6

Ten years later, Mary moved into the shadows and vanished. She liked this game that her guardian played with her, and she is actually quite good at it now. He had taught her all he knew, and she had learned a few tricks from some of the other thieves and assassins around the royal city. Her sister Ann really didn’t want to play; she was more concerned with being a girl and being pretty. But not Mary; she liked to hide, jump out, and scare people. It was the most fun she had. With only two or three years between her and her sister, Mary did her best to look after Ann.

Now, at the age of thirteen, Mary was considered one of the best in the city, as she proved the last time she went out with her guardian. Sighing, she knew he was getting old and wasn’t as good as he once was, but he kept up appearances for the sake of Mary and her sister. She was afraid that the next time would be the last time and he wouldn’t be back.

He had been grooming her each day for years. She was fast, almost undetectable. Her reflexes were sharper than he had ever been. Mary thought of his number one rule: don’t trust ANYONE unless, one, they CAN kill you and don’t, and two, they start wanting to make a deal. That way, you know they don’t have complete control. Always have at least three ways to escape, and always make sure they are completely different and unexpected.

As she practiced with her knives, she heard excited yelling coming from the street. Running to see, she saw many posters being put up for volunteers in the civil war that threatened to rip the empire apart. A special squad of killers with special skills. Mary laughed as she took the poster so fast that no one saw her, or so she thought. A tall man across the way started to follow her, looking down every few seconds. As she ran back to her practice, she didn’t hear him approach, and he slipped behind her. He stood there and watched her throw.

“You’re very good, you know,” He startled her out of her thoughts.

“Who the hell are you and what do you want?” She paused in her throw at the target.

“I was watching you from across the street. You are very good. Your reflexes are extremely sharp,” he winked at her.

“Uh huh, so ... actually, what the hell is it you want with me?” She asked.

“I need people like you, with the skills you have to help the empire,” He stated. Mary started to laugh, then to REALLY laugh so hard that she almost fell on the ground. “Why,” she gasped out between laughs, “would I want to help a bunch of bullies and noncaring assholes who only want to grab as much power as they can, step on everyone else, and kill anyone who says different?”

The tall man was taken aback as he leaned back and let her rant and rave about the empire. On many of her points, he agreed with her, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. Finally, she took a breath and stopped.

“Okay, how about you do it to help me make the empire like it should be”. He sighed as he looked at her.

This time she just smirked, “As if.”

Sighing again, he started, “How about you do it ‘cause I could have you thrown in jail for destruction of property of the state?” Mary stiffened at that, ready to bolt at any moment.

“You wouldn’t dare hurt a private citizen, besides you have no proof,” as she again smirked at him.

Leaning over his arm, he stated, “Replay the scene across the street from where I was.”

As it played, her mouth opened and she knew he had her. Mary had never seen a surveillance system as detailed and high tech as this, just who was this? After it played out, he looked again at her. “I have need of your services, you will work with me directly, not the empire.” He didn’t want her to know he had his own issues with the governing body. “After a little training...” he started.

“I don’t need training. I have been training all my life,” She growled back at him.

“I know that, it’s for the tech that you will be using and”, taking a big breath, he wasn’t sure if this would clinch it, “you will of course get to ‘share’ and keep any tech that you and I develop.”

Now he was talking! This was what she had been waiting for! She reached out her hand but quickly withdrew it as she thought of one other thing. “I will be paid. Isn’t this strictly volunteer work?” She breathed out.

“Of course, we aren’t barbarians,” He replied, almost offended that she would think that of him. He was, if nothing else, an honest man, a man of his word.

“I’ll need a place for my family to stay. No details, just a better place than here.” She almost whispered “no details and no one is to know who they are.”

“That will be easy to arrange.” He began to breathe easier as her body language relaxed.

Over the course of the next week Mary moved her sister to a much better part of the city along with her guardian, who was surprised that she had gotten the offer. Mary told him she was working for a covert operations department with a lot of tech she had never seen before.

She begged him to retire as she would be making enough so that he didn’t have to do what he was doing anymore. As he thought it over, he knew she was right. On his last two jobs, he had almost been caught, plus he had to take care of Ann, so he agreed, and they settled in. As the weeks dragged by, Mary was about to get bored as she and Jim (she found out later that was his name) had developed a small matter through matter phase apparatus.